Page 40 of Habibi: Always and Forever

THE COVEN MASTER’S BEST FRIEND

FREDDIE

A nthony’s strong vampire arms wrapped around Freddie’s waist, and Freddie bent down to kiss his sweet lips.

He tasted his own blood on the man’s tongue, and once again his cock hardened in his pants.

The last hour spent fucking and feeding from each other wasn’t enough.

Images of his mate’s juicy ass and muscular thighs quivering beneath him flashed across his memory.

No. He had work to do.

“You know,” Anthony said, after breaking the kiss, “we should take a vacation. Or you should join a rec league softball team or something. Your whole life can’t be running the coven and having sex with me.”

“Why not?” Freddie grumbled. What a silly notion.

He needed nothing other than his vampires and his mate.

Did he spend all day negotiating with witch circles and werewolf packs, only to have to manage vampire personality conflicts in the evening?

Sure. Did he have friends who weren’t also his subordinates?

No. But why should he? The life of a coven master was the one he’d chosen, the one he left London for. He didn’t regret it.

“Because…” Anthony stuck out his bottom lip as he rested his hands on his hips. “Because you’ll grow to resent it. If you had a hobby?—”

“I have a hobby.” Freddie gestured to the furniture all around them in the coven house’s enormous common area. “Victorian furnishings.”

Anthony sighed. “Having a dealer who dumps every antique she can find here doesn’t count as having a hobby. Just think about it.”

Freddie rolled his eyes, knowing that once Anthony got something into his head, he wouldn’ t let go of it any time soon. Freddie bent down for another quick goodbye kiss. He had to leave.

“Be safe,” Anthony whispered.

“Don’t worry, love. This group is weak. I could do it on my own.” Freddie smiled, trying to project how unconcerned he was. Anthony worried about him, even though he was one of the most powerful vampires in the entire country.

“But you won’t be.” Lillian’s voice rang out from behind him. She was his First, and she had his back. “Because in the Grosvenor coven, we don’t do shit alone.”

Freddie nodded, and they headed toward the door. For a moment, he was acutely aware of what a strange pair they were, her deep brown skin against his pale and freckled white expanse, his short, flame-red hair against her long black tresses. Not only that, but he towered over her.

They might look odd to a random passerby, but the sight of them would strike fear into the heart of rogue vampires that evening.

* * *

T he house was disgusting. From the outside, it had blended into the neighborhood, an attractive brownstone three-flat in a historic area of Brooklyn Heights. Once through the door, though, the smell of old blood was overwhelming.

The sight that greeted them chased away any thoughts of leniency. Humans had died here, many humans, their bodies discarded and left to rot. The vampires themselves were easily eradicated, Lillian beheading the seven near-feral undead in under a minute.

The remaining leader was more of a threat, which Freddie was currently dealing with. The filthy man in blood-stained rags wasn’t as strong as Freddie—there weren’t many who were—but he was a whirlwind of deadly limbs. He immediately went for Freddie’s throat.

Fangs out, the man’s sharp claws dug into Freddie’s exposed skin.

He could fling the man away, of course, or smash him against the floor, but the house and the neighborhood had suffered enough disruption.

The shrieking and the damage needed to end.

Luckily, being both ancient and a coven master had its perks.

“Kneel,” the hulking vampire Compelled, and the leader of the rogues flung himself into the position, frozen in suppliance.

“Are there others besides the ones present here?” Freddie asked, his power reverberating in the once-beautiful living room.

“No,” the man whispered, failing to fight the coven master’s compulsion. Freddie nodded. With one command, he’d end the cloud of fear the neighborhood had been under for the last six months.

“Decapitate yourself.”

Before the words were even out of Freddie’s mouth, the leader’s head was severed from his body, ripped off his spine by his own hands. Both body and head tumbled down to the dirty hardwood floor in a cascade of wet flesh.

He turned to Lillian, about to have her call someone to clean the place up, when he heard it. The tiniest of whimpers.

Was there a human alive here somewhere?

“On it,” Lillian said before he said a word. She disappeared into the nearby kitchen, as Freddie surveyed the surrounding room. These vampires had not only hidden themselves from his coven, they’d broken all their laws and lived in squalor. There was nothing left worth saving.

He was about to follow Lillian into the kitchen when an enormous crash sounded, followed by a series of clicks against wood. Freddie readied himself for another fight when, from around the corner came…a puppy.

An adorable chocolate Labrador retriever, maybe all of eight months old, gangly and uncoordinated, burst out of the doorway. He clumsily ran into Freddie’s arms.

Looking down at the creature, a wave of disorientation went through Freddie. The little guy was cute, no question, and his eyes were huge, peering up at Freddie with a devastating hope.

But he was covered in blood. And he had fangs.

“Lillian!” Freddie called out, and the woman was standing in the kitchen doorway the next moment.

“He was hiding in the cabinet under sink. Poor guy was shaking. He’s?—”

“He’s a vampire.” Freddie spoke in a flat monotone, the rage simmering underneath his words. This was an abomination. He wished he could bring back the leader so he could force him to kill himself again. Turning pets and children was anathema for a reason. Consent wasn’t possible.

Lillian nodded. “He is, poor thing. What a crew of absolute wankers.”

A leathery lick slid across his palm. The puppy was going to town on his hand. Freddie had to admit the dog was the cutest thing he’d ever seen.

“We should bring him home,” Lillian said as she swept past Freddie toward the door. “Everyone would love him.”

Freddie considered it. Oscar, Trent, Justin - so many of his vampires would go crazy for the pup. And he did need a home. He couldn’t live in a shelter like a normal dog. He deserved someone who knew how to provide for his needs. Someone who would take the sadness from those big eyes.

He nodded and held the puppy out to Lillian. As he did, the sweet thing yelped and burrowed back into Freddie’s chest. There was something about the little one’s snout tucked into Freddie’s armpit that warmed his heart.

“I think he wants to go with you, Coven Master,” Lillian said in a dry tone. Freddie was about to deliver a snarky retort, to tell her he was too busy corralling wayward coven members to be in charge of a dog.

But when he caught sight of that perfect face looking up at him, he couldn’t force his mouth to form the words.

* * *

ANTHONY

Anthony settled into a large upholstered chair and took a sip of his tea. The heat of the drink spread throughout his chest cavity, although its ability to warm him was limited by his vampire body temperature. He didn’t mind. It was the ritual that calmed him.

Plus the cozy chair. It had been a fight to get it, but it had been worth it. He didn’t begrudge Freddie his love of Victorian furniture, but it was always very low to the ground. It wasn’t comfortable, not like curling up in this giant puff of a chair.

Anthony had about finished his tea when the sound of frantic steps coming up the stairwell reached his ears. He tensed, wondering if something was wrong, and if so, why he’d heard nothing about it.

Freddie? What happened? Anthony sent the words to his mate, but as he waited for a response, his questions were answered in the form of an adorable, chaotic explosion.

A furious ball of brown fur burst through the open door of the stairwell into the large common area. It was frantically sniffing at the many pieces of antique furniture decorating the place, confronted with distracting scent after distracting scent. Then it finally noticed Anthony.

At which point, the little creature yelped and headed straight for him. It was a dog! A chocolate lab, and a cute one at that. Anthony braced himself for impact as the bundle of energy hit him right in the chest. Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around the pup, murmuring softly to it.

“Hey, buddy, you’re doing okay. You’re the sweetest, aren’t you?”

“You’ve met our new lodger,” a deep female voice called out, and Anthony looked up to see Freddie and Lillian standing by the entrance.

“He’s perfect!” Anthony couldn’t keep the joy from infecting his voice. He’d loved dogs since he was a little boy. “Where did he come from?”

“The rogues were keeping him in their flat,” Freddie said, and at the sound of his words, the puppy wriggled out of Anthony’s arms, leaving a sad, lonely space where he’d been a moment before. Anthony wouldn’t be clingy with the new dog, would he? Not at all.

The puppy made a beeline for Freddie, and Anthony’s heart leapt as the sweet thing wrapped itself around the hulking coven master’s legs before jumping up on him.

“He loves you!” The words burst out of Anthony. He couldn’t help himself. This was exactly what Freddie needed.

“He does,” Lillian said, even as a smile broke out on Freddie’s face at the dog’s assault. Freddie wasn’t a smiler, and Anthony delighted at how easily the chocolate lab had broken down his mate’s defenses.

Anthony second-guessed his assessment of the situation when he saw that, in their rough-housing, the dog had cut a gash in Freddie’s arm. Freddie healed near-instantly, of course, but…were those fangs?

“He’s a vampire,” Freddie said in response to the look of horror Anthony had on his face, not pausing the gentle petting of his new friend. “The rogues turned him.”